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We circled back from replacing everything with our smartphone to realizing that phone cameras don't perform as well as purpose built photography gear. This was
by magic_hamster 4y ago
We circled back from replacing everything with our smartphone to realizing that phone cameras don't perform as well as purpose built photography gear.
This was always going to be the case because no matter how good your software is, phone cameras will never have the optics, and probably not the sensors too, of a DSLR camera.
To cover this, manufacturers employ all sorts of clever post processing, which in turn make it so that your final image is different from the preview you're seeing (which is also heavily altered from what the sensor is seeing, probably).
With new tools such as AI introduced into post processing, we are just seeing more artifacts in what has been a fairly extensive process already. You can only push the tiny sensors and lenses so far but every manufacturer still wants the public to perceive their latest release as if a lot of progress has been made.
Perhaps people expect too much from their phone.
- azinman2 4y agoUltimately it comes down to physics. Tiny sensors and lenses can only do so much.
- snapetom 4y agoMy argument to people that ask was always that there were things I do (specifically for fast action) that a phone will never be able to do due to physics. This article is just more ammo for me - you can't trust phone manufacturers not to manipulate. Today, Apple, but tomorrow Google, Samsung, etc. Even if you shoot RAW on a camera, there's no guarantee manufacturers won't mess with them somehow in the future.
- azinman2 4y agoI don’t know what you meant by messing with a RAW image. At that point it’s baked, and the only that would change is the algorithms that handle the raw file, but everything this article is referring to is already done. Raw camera sensors in phones are terrible and extremely noisy because there are few photons actually making it inside - what’s largely improved over time is the processing of these files. Every company that ships a phone post processes the images otherwise they’d be unusable. I also guarantee that while this make quite things where one manufacturer is worse than another in a specific situation, there will be situations where the opposite is true as well. I wouldn’t call this “manipulation” however. It suggests some nefarious deed when instead it’s just about balancing color, skin tone, denoising, etc.
- system2 4y agoSensors are getting better and from the looks of it the manufacturers are not ashamed to slap quarter sized lenses.
- ip26 4y agoSensors are not that far from fundamental limits for their size. The "standard" DSLR sensor is 1.7" on the diagonal. (A quarter is less than 1")